Oakland University Recreation and Well-Being (RecWell) recently hosted a fire truck pull competition on Sept. 27 to raise nearly 100 pounds of food and toiletries donations for the OU community.
Students, faculty and staff participated in teams of five or fewer to pull an idle 60,000-pound fire truck — provided by the Auburn Hills Fire Department — 75 feet by a rope. For safety purposes, a member of the fire department was inside the vehicle at all times. Each team was allowed two attempts to get the best time.
To participate, each team member was asked to bring at least one item to donate to the Golden Grizzlies Pantry, located in the Office of Student Involvement (OSI) in the Oakland Center. Other donors provided additional items to involve students who may not have had the ability to contribute an entry fee.
Cortney Heileman, assistant director of fitness and well-being, said she wanted to host an event like this for a long time.
“We had a lot of support on this one, and we’re hoping to raise some good donations for the pantry…It’s a really unique thing,” Heileman said. “It’s a great experience for [people] to do something fun and promote physical health, but also have a really supportive community here on campus.”
The team to pull the truck the quickest would receive a prize — and if the winning team was a club sports team, they would receive $500 in additional funding.
Among the club sports teams that participated were Ballroom Dance, Football and Swim & Dive — the latter won the competition with a time of 17.44 seconds.
For student Beau Schultz, the reason for participating was simple — it was a chance to try something unique. He added that he appreciated the “friendly competition.”
“[The food drive] is obviously a great cause, but what really triggered my interest was pulling a truck,” Schultz said. “That’s cool…I’m always good to give some cans, but cans for a truck pull? I mean, please, how often do you get to pull a fire truck?”
Student David Mercier said he decided to participate in the truck pull event in hopes of receiving the money for the Tennis Club at OU.
“Not only did we get to help donate the cans, but [that money would] allow us to compete in more tournaments, so more experiences for everyone,” Mercier said.
Although this is the first time RecWell has hosted the event, Heileman said she hopes to make it an annual fundraiser.
“I’ve had it in the back of my mind for a couple years to do this, and this is the first year that we were able to get it all together and make it work,” she said. “We’re grateful for the Auburn Hills Fire Department for partnering with us on this.
“We’re hoping from here on out that it’ll be an annual event to raise awareness for the pantry.”
Any individuals interested in donating items to the pantry can drop them off directly at the pantry or schedule an appointment for drop-off online.
